Stand-up comic Aparna Nancherla has a thing for misfits. “I love a good weirdo or outsider, because I think all people are inherently weirdos—or believe themselves to be outsiders in some way, even if their only weirdness is just how obscenely ‘normal’ they are,” she says. “Any character that truly embraces their own quirks or eccentricities is someone I feel quite attuned to.”

That soft spot for underdogs has helped Nancherla find her niche on screen, whether she’s performing sets on Conan, coaching depressives (in a funny way!) on her beloved the Blue Woman Group podcast, or popping up on The Chris Gethard Show, Love, and Inside Amy Schumer—not to mention Comedy Central’s Corporate, which premieres January 17.

Nancherla got her start in the D.C. comedy scene in 2006, but didn’t find a bigger stage until moving to Los Angeles, when she joined the staff of the well-liked but short-lived late-night show Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. The idea of staff writers developing and performing their own material on camera was a novel concept when W. Kamau Bell made it a staple of his show, giving Nancherla an opportunity to deliver tips on how to stay positive in the face of a dark world, report on weed news while “high,” and attempt to make a gun with a printer—not a 3-D printer, a regular inkjet one—so that she could take over the show. She credits the experience with teaching her to be comfortable on camera, and getting her “in the mind-set of being more political and being more informed of the news.”

Nancherla took that new outlook with her when she moved to Late Night with Seth Meyers in 2015, though she ultimately decided late night wasn’t for her—it was too rigid, too regimented—and left the show in early 2016. But the exposure brought more attention to her Twitter account, which is full of clever puns (“I once dated an apostrophe. Too possessive”) and jokes that revel in silliness (“I’m a nap developer, I work from home”). Her debut album, Just Putting It Out There, was released in 2016, featuring bits in which Nancherla laments common struggles (loneliness, going on a date with a privileged jerk, having your self-esteem lowered after seeing a model in person) without falling into the reflexive self-deprecation or snark so many comics traffic in. In 2016, her Comedy Central Half Hour episode debuted; this year she has a new half-hour special as part of Netflix’s The Standups series.

Considering all that practice, it’s no surprise that Nancherla has also become a go-to actor for TV series seeking sweet-hearted weirdos, non-clichéd depressed loners, and “off-putting” characters that aren’t at all off-putting. Last year alone, she played the friend-seeking, Mortal Kombat-loving Ramaniac on Master of None, troubled Hollyhock on BoJack Horseman, and compassionate stand-up Anaya on Crashing. While it might be easy to think Nancherla tends to play versions of herself, she grounds each character with a sense of humanity and charm: “I think most of them have a drier delivery and a wry sensibility,” she says, “so I think I’m able to tap into that naturally. But at the same time, being able to take each character for their own goals and motivations is where I am able to distinguish between [them].”

After years of stealing scenes (or whole episodes) in guest roles, Nancherla is about to make her debut as a series regular on Corporate. The series, which plays like Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace meets Better Off Ted, casts Nancherla as Grace, an H.R. representative constantly getting caught up in the messy shenanigans of two “junior executives-in-training” (show creators Matt Ingebretson and Jake Weisman) tasked with doing the dirty work for a global conglomerate. The character wasn’t completely defined when Nancherla joined the show—“I think it was helpful that I was friends with them, because I think they wanted to cast someone they could naturally play off of”—which gave her an opportunity to work with the writers to make Grace someone natural, and someone Nancherla could really connect with.

While getting a regular series role is a huge accomplishment, Nancherla is also working on developing her own starring vehicle, and is set to co-star in Paul Feig’s upcoming adaptation of the thriller A Simple Favor. In it, Nancherla will play one of three pre-school mothers that serve as a Greek chorus throughout the knotty film. “It was really neat to get to be part of that, especially because it’s kind of outside the comedy realm,” she says. “It’s a psychological-suspense thriller.” Sounds like the perfect place for a charming weirdo.